Belgium: New Mint Director

[chrisild]

The Royal Belgian Mint has a new director - again an "interim mintmaster", it seems. Serge Lesens was the mint director until the end of May; the new one (since 1 June) is Bernard Gillard.

As his mintmaster sign he picked a cat. However, all 2012 coins will have Lesens's quill, except for gold collector coins to be issued later this year. Why a feline? Gillard loves cats, he currently has seven.

The attached image shows (left) the mintmark: the head of St. Michael, patron of Brussels. On the right you see Gillard's mintmaster sign, to be used for circulation coins as from 2013.

Christian

[Bimat]

Why a feline? Gillard loves cats, he currently has seven.

Is this just a joke or are you serious?

Aditya

[chrisild]

Have not seen a photo of him and his cats so far, but the mint says so.

The Belgian Mint has not had a "permanent mintmaster" since the end of 2008 when Romain Coenen retired. (Coenen had that job for about 20 years.) So between 1-Jan-2009 and 31-May-2012, Serge Lesens was the interim director; he has now reached retirement age, after 36 years at the mint.

Bernard Gillard, the "new guy", is 61 years old, and has been a mint employee for more than 35 years. He was born in Roubaix/FR and lives in Mouscron/BE; both places are close to Lille. Gillard is an engineer, has worked as an essayeur (ie. in quality control) and became "Rijkskeurmeester" in 1999 - basically the head of the QC and analysis lab.

According to the mint (where else could I have all this from? ), "Bernard Gillard koos de kat als muntmeesterteken omdat dit huisdier reeds lang deel uitmaakt van zijn leven (momenteel vinden niet minder dan 7 katten bij hem onderdak)." Which means that he chose the cat as his mintmaster sign because that animal is an important part of his life, and that currently there are seven under his roof ...

And as I wrote, the circulation coins dated 2012 will all show the Lesens quill. The very first pieces with the cat will be the €12½ and €100 collector coins issued this year.

Christian

[Figleaf]

I suppose I am too cynical, but I think it's a plot to make collectors buy Belgian date sets even when they collect by type/mintmaster.

Peter

[Bimat]

I suppose I am too cynical, but I think it's a plot to make collectors buy Belgian date sets even when they collect by type/mintmaster.

You are correct, Peter. I do collect euro coins by mint mark / privy mark varieties and Belgian euro coins are indeed headache in such cases. They never issue all the 8 denominations for circulation anyway (unlike Spain/Greece) so you have to buy BU set to have a 'complete' collection..so I have finally left collecting Belgian euro coins by these varieties..

Aditya

[Tom0000]

Yes , it will be 6th euro set from this country which will have state "have to have" in collection.
But ... maybe they will issue all coins to circulation in 2013 or next years and none other changes we will see during this time...?

[Figleaf]

Maybe, Tom, but if history is any guide, they'll think of something else in the next two years.

Peter